C-27 Refit/Refurb
- Thread starter philwsailz
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On the hatchboards, I sanded flat, cleaned with acetone, then used a Petit brand filler stain to color and fill the grain prior to varnish. The varnish is West Marine brand, by Epiphanes. I normally will use Interlux but the WM stuff came with the boat.Bayrealtor said:
Many coats....
BIG storms over the weekend. Friday night, middle of the night we even had tornado sirens going. Saturday night turned out not as bad as predicted, still lots of rain................. at the house. 
The lake I have my weekend spot at is about 15 miles from my house, west of Stillwater, OK. For some reason, the ole "Cimarron Split" is again at work. Cimarron Split is a phenomenon we lake rats named; we have noticed over the years that often an approaching storm system will somehow bust in two at about the Cimarron River, splitting the storm in half as it rolls by the lake. The city of Stillwater, Oklahoma had as much as a foot of accumulation over a 48 hour period. I had about 9 inches of rain between the two nights at the house. Most local ponds and other lakes around here are full or flooded.
The mesonet weather station at the lake where I am recorded a 48 hour total accumulation of right at 1.5 inches...... yawn... Still, runoff from the drainage basin back west managed to raise water level another 6 to 10 inches.
Had we received the amount of rain at the lake and in the drainage basin west that Stillwater did, we likely would be close to full. Just our luck. Oh well.... At least my friend's Catalina 25, parked next door on my sister's dock is again almost floating...
The lake I have my weekend spot at is about 15 miles from my house, west of Stillwater, OK. For some reason, the ole "Cimarron Split" is again at work. Cimarron Split is a phenomenon we lake rats named; we have noticed over the years that often an approaching storm system will somehow bust in two at about the Cimarron River, splitting the storm in half as it rolls by the lake. The city of Stillwater, Oklahoma had as much as a foot of accumulation over a 48 hour period. I had about 9 inches of rain between the two nights at the house. Most local ponds and other lakes around here are full or flooded.
The mesonet weather station at the lake where I am recorded a 48 hour total accumulation of right at 1.5 inches...... yawn... Still, runoff from the drainage basin back west managed to raise water level another 6 to 10 inches.
Had we received the amount of rain at the lake and in the drainage basin west that Stillwater did, we likely would be close to full. Just our luck. Oh well.... At least my friend's Catalina 25, parked next door on my sister's dock is again almost floating...
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Meguiar's is my new friend.
I put a 6" hookit pad on my random orbit sander and tried out Meguiar's 1500 grit pad followed by a 3000 grit pad. A spritz of water to keep things moving and about 2 minutes each, followed by Meguiar's Diamond Cut compound. This 2' x 2' area took less than 10 minutes to get this flat, smooth, and shiny. Finishing the topsides is going to be a breeze.
Above the rub rail the toe rails and cabin trunk are going to take a little longer but much of that was already wet sanded with 600 so with any luck I finally have my system in place for slicking the ole girl out. Lots of hand work above the rub rail though; I may end up looking like Popeye!
I put a 6" hookit pad on my random orbit sander and tried out Meguiar's 1500 grit pad followed by a 3000 grit pad. A spritz of water to keep things moving and about 2 minutes each, followed by Meguiar's Diamond Cut compound. This 2' x 2' area took less than 10 minutes to get this flat, smooth, and shiny. Finishing the topsides is going to be a breeze.
Above the rub rail the toe rails and cabin trunk are going to take a little longer but much of that was already wet sanded with 600 so with any luck I finally have my system in place for slicking the ole girl out. Lots of hand work above the rub rail though; I may end up looking like Popeye!
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Wow Phil, now that is some shine on that gelcoat! I always try to buff my hull when hauled out, & even after compounding & waxing, she will only stay shiny for about a month or so before the salt water of the chesapeake makes her look dull again. After breaking my back & arms sanding it makes it really feel futile.
It is a double-edge sword isn't it? I have a plywood 16 foot utility that I used a matte-to-satin white paint on the topsides specifically so it would weather with less maintenance....jrowan said:
I read a good article a while back talking to the pros of low-gloss finishes, for this exact reason. The author refurbed and refinished an old wooden tug/trawler, (as I recall) and steered away from high gloss due to the maintenance aspect. His boat aged quite gracefully with only periodic washing.
I can't do it though, not on fiberglass. This boat came out of the mold shiny, so again she will be. Ironically my wife brought home a tub of fresh spinach tonight.... I may have to start calling her Olive Oyl. My arms are probably going to soon fit the part.
Sweet Pea's genealogy was questionable, wasn't it? In that context, I hope not...shipwreck66 said:
Funny how looking back things don't quite fit... Like why did Donald Duck get away with wearing no pants?
Okay, I talked with my painter tonight and we are close to a window to paint the transom. In the meantime, I almost have the new dock done.
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Sometimes in the spring we will hook a cultivator onto the boat and plant corn.... :Liar:
My lake is just west of Stillwater, Oklahoma, original home of the Red Dirt music scene. From the color of the water, it should be apparent how the name came about.
It will get clearer usually when the spring rains subside, and our new zebra mussle infestation makes the water even clearer come July and August...
I had a wild hair idea and have decided to act on it. I already have low-voltage landscape lighting power on the deck, so I am going to use some of the new long-life waterproof LED strip lighting to illuminate the dock.
Here is an "artist's" conceptual image of the result.
Here is an "artist's" conceptual image of the result.
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You should illuminate the entire boat this way, the ghost boat theme, kinda like the Flying Dutchman. On a side note, I had a solar marker light installed under my dock so I could find my slip at night, people at the marina have been puzzled for months by the ghostly glow under my walkway, but fearing moccassins, no one would stick their head down there at night to find it. I had forgotten the thing was on, it was apparently coming on every night and driviing people crazy.
Thanks! It was fun, but glad to be almost done. I ordered corner caps for the floating section this morning; after seeing a buddy's boat come in and dock on the thing a few times, I know the corners need added protection to further prevent hull-side damage, as well as dock damage, both to the wood structure and to the lights.
Time to get back to working on the boat. I have a place to park it now, even with the hideous drought.... We are still 7' down, and going into our dry season, so without a miracle it won't be this year for splashdown. In the meantime, I have my two little woodies, a Hobie 18 and that Express scow I bought that I have pics of over in the shared all sailors forum.
I decided to go ahead and purchase new spreaders, spreader endcaps, and all new standing rigging. I have been cleaning up the shop in prep for Norseman termination of the rigging. I already had the stainless spreader bracket conversion installed, so I will be all new when the stick goes up. New halyards even, as I replaced the rope to wire with all line and new ball bearing sheaves last year.
I have paint and transom lettering in place. A buddy shot a clean polished section of the topsides with a color spectrometer and we custom mixed new paint. The transom will be painted, then we wil lapply the boat name lettering, and then we will clear over the whole thing. I have asked that we put some UV stabilizer in the clear so the red pigment in the vinyl lettering will last longer. This guy buries graphics under clear all teh time, and I have some of his work on a few of my vintage motors, so I am real confident this will turn out sharp!
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Well, water continues to go down, the Oklahoma temperatures are brutal again this summer, but with the help of evaporative cooling, I got a little work done on the sailboat from 9:00 to midnight last night.
First off, if you have never checked out the Port-A-Cool brand of evaporative coolers you ought to. I have been around several different models, in high and low humidity, and somehow they just work all the time regardless of RH. Don't ask me how, I dont get that they work in higher humidity either but they work. I have the Cyclone 3000 and love it. I used it on LOW fan speed last night! I was quite comfortable in front of it despite the temp still hovering above 100 after dark inside the shop.
Started work on my standing rigging finally. I am using the Norseman swageless ends, in a kit from CD. the kit is for standard or tall rig, so you cut shrouds to final length yourself. Never had my backside puckered so tightly as when I finally got to the point of cutting the backstay to length!
I was really having a heck of a time trying to get a fair/flat means of laying the cables, (old and new) side-by-side to compare lengths, turnbuckle settings, (old) etc, so I could make an informed decision about where to cut the new cable. Staring at one of my drills I had an inspiration. My shop was originally built as a dozer repair shop... The floor is a monolithic pour of heavily reinforced 10" thick concrete. There are no cracks, (well, okay, one). It is so thick, I had no problem deciding to drill a hole to receive a stainless bolt.
I took the upper swaged fittings of both old and new shroud, tied them together and concentric through the stainless bolt and dropped the bolt in the hole. Voila, the upper ends of both shrouds are now mounted concentrically, and I can pull them taught side-by-side on the floor to determine a proper cut length. This will come in super handy as I can now use this repeatable method to carefully lay out the rest of the shrouds, and it will allow me to get uppers and lowers exactly the same length quickly and easily.
The old saying measure twice, cut once TOTALLY does not apply here. When cutting a $150.00 hunk of wire you measure way more than twice, especially when it is your very first attempt.... Try maybe 40 times?
After experimenting with a hacksaw, (I don't want to look like Popeye after this) and a metal chop saw, (if un-welding individual strands is your thing go for it, but I don't recommend it) I finally went out and bought the crafter's tool of choice; a Dremel. At low speed, with the big quick-change flexible metal blade the Dremel tool does a nice job of making a cool-temperature cut without welding the individual strands of wire together. It does it cleanly too.
Follow the Norseman instructions carefully, slowly, reading them 5-bazzillion times, and you know ALMOST enough to do the job. Here's the very valuable tip I got from Maine Sail (thanks!!!): use TEF-GEL anti-sieze paste on the threads of the compression fittings whild forming the wire's outer strands over the internal cone. This prevents galling and allows the two mating parts to easily screw together and back apart without damaging the threads. Clean the TEF-GEL off with a solvent prior to final assembly.
See pics below to show the work I did, over 3 hours, on a single termination.... I know the rest will go quicker, now that I have the first one done. Again, thanks to Maine Sail for the advice and guidance!
First off, if you have never checked out the Port-A-Cool brand of evaporative coolers you ought to. I have been around several different models, in high and low humidity, and somehow they just work all the time regardless of RH. Don't ask me how, I dont get that they work in higher humidity either but they work. I have the Cyclone 3000 and love it. I used it on LOW fan speed last night! I was quite comfortable in front of it despite the temp still hovering above 100 after dark inside the shop.
Started work on my standing rigging finally. I am using the Norseman swageless ends, in a kit from CD. the kit is for standard or tall rig, so you cut shrouds to final length yourself. Never had my backside puckered so tightly as when I finally got to the point of cutting the backstay to length!
I was really having a heck of a time trying to get a fair/flat means of laying the cables, (old and new) side-by-side to compare lengths, turnbuckle settings, (old) etc, so I could make an informed decision about where to cut the new cable. Staring at one of my drills I had an inspiration. My shop was originally built as a dozer repair shop... The floor is a monolithic pour of heavily reinforced 10" thick concrete. There are no cracks, (well, okay, one). It is so thick, I had no problem deciding to drill a hole to receive a stainless bolt.
I took the upper swaged fittings of both old and new shroud, tied them together and concentric through the stainless bolt and dropped the bolt in the hole. Voila, the upper ends of both shrouds are now mounted concentrically, and I can pull them taught side-by-side on the floor to determine a proper cut length. This will come in super handy as I can now use this repeatable method to carefully lay out the rest of the shrouds, and it will allow me to get uppers and lowers exactly the same length quickly and easily.
The old saying measure twice, cut once TOTALLY does not apply here. When cutting a $150.00 hunk of wire you measure way more than twice, especially when it is your very first attempt.... Try maybe 40 times?
After experimenting with a hacksaw, (I don't want to look like Popeye after this) and a metal chop saw, (if un-welding individual strands is your thing go for it, but I don't recommend it) I finally went out and bought the crafter's tool of choice; a Dremel. At low speed, with the big quick-change flexible metal blade the Dremel tool does a nice job of making a cool-temperature cut without welding the individual strands of wire together. It does it cleanly too.
Follow the Norseman instructions carefully, slowly, reading them 5-bazzillion times, and you know ALMOST enough to do the job. Here's the very valuable tip I got from Maine Sail (thanks!!!): use TEF-GEL anti-sieze paste on the threads of the compression fittings whild forming the wire's outer strands over the internal cone. This prevents galling and allows the two mating parts to easily screw together and back apart without damaging the threads. Clean the TEF-GEL off with a solvent prior to final assembly.
See pics below to show the work I did, over 3 hours, on a single termination.... I know the rest will go quicker, now that I have the first one done. Again, thanks to Maine Sail for the advice and guidance!
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USE TEF GEL!!!!
Forgot to lube up on a front lower today and galled a swageless stud. Mainesail is SO right to recommend tef-gel when assembling stainless parts.
Call in to Hamilton Marine. Gotta get a new stud on the way. Good thing i'm not in a hurry...
Forgot to lube up on a front lower today and galled a swageless stud. Mainesail is SO right to recommend tef-gel when assembling stainless parts.
Call in to Hamilton Marine. Gotta get a new stud on the way. Good thing i'm not in a hurry...
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Sounds like you're making progress despite the bump in the road Phil.
I like the "impressionist art" on your work bench!
I like the "impressionist art" on your work bench!